Bengaluru: On Thursday, patients admitted to the ESIC Model Hospital in Rajajinagar were put under severe stress following a water crisis. The patients said that some surgeries scheduled for Thursday were postponed to Friday because of paucity of water.
On Thursday morning, a contractor failed to supply water to the hospital as per schedule, forcing the authorities to make do with minimum water from other sources. Patients’ relatives said that the crisis continued till Thursday evening.
“Some surgeries had to be postponed and the patients were informed,” said a relative. “It was not a crisis, but everyone was left wondering on how to cope if an emergency arises,” he said.
Sources in the hospital said that the contractor stopped supplying water as he wanted the tariff revised. “But we were not ready to pay a higher amount. The situation worsened, as we don’t have any alternative source of water,” they said.
Medical Superintendent Dr Rachita Biswas said, “As we get very little supply from the BWSSB, we had gotten into a contract with an agency. But it ran into some problems. To deal with the immediate crisis, we contacted another agency and the problem was resolved by evening. The hospital's operation theatre had to be shut down for a few hours, but we opened it after resolving the crisis. Thankfully there were no emergencies at that time. Water crisis is something that the hospital has been battling as the demand has shot up over the years. We are in touch with BWSSB to increase our load.”
